The RealGM discusses the new breed of NBA all-stars that will be focused on for years to come and the writer here thinks that Jose should be a shoe-in as a reserve for the Eastern Conference team this year.

Candidate’s Platform: Toronto’s Jose Calderon might just be the best point guard in the Eastern Conference. The 27-year-old had the league’s best assist to turnover ratio last season at 5.4 to 1. And now that T.J. Ford has been traded to Indiana for Jermaine O’Neal, Calderon is left unchallenged as the starting point guard for the Raptors.

Calderon has been democratic and professional in his role on the Raptors. When asked to be a backup he performed admirably after Ford was first acquired, when asked to be the starter when Ford was injured he then put up All-Star numbers, he was then asked to come off the bench again when Ford returned from injury and made no fuss whatsoever.

It can be said that he abandoned his democratic approach when he stated in his blog summarizing last season, "I want to be a starter and to be in a team that aspires for everything." Poor English aside, who can blame him? In the 56 games he started last season Calderon averaged 13 points, 9.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 91% from the free throw line and 45.3% from three-point land. If Calderon’s game could be described in one word, EFFICIENT would be best.

In these hard times who couldn’t use a little more efficiency?

Prediction: Incumbent All-Star guard Jason Kidd is now in the Western Conference. Ray Allen was a fill-in due to Caron Butler’s injury last February and probably didn’t deserve the spot over Hedo Turkoglu anyway. Calderon should easily make the All-Star team this season as a reserve.

TJ has a bigger body of work if you want to judge who has a better chance at being an All-Star. Jose is really living and got paid off of 2 months or so of high calibre All-Star level basketball in his entire NBA career. To me this doesnt even come close to justifying him as a "shoe in", if anything im nervous about him having these expectations, and dont get me wrong, i think Calderon is a really good PG, but i cant classify him as great by his body of work yet.

For the record, i dont think TJ will be an allstar either, but i think you have to give him at least as much of a chance as Jose, if not more, his flashyness and ability to put up big numbers attract alot of attention in silly allstar voting among fans.

Jose has remarkably better numbers the less often he plays, in virtually every category. On 3+ days rest he shoots almost 10% better from the field and from 3. He gets almost 20% more assists and 25-30% more points also.

He is definitely better fully rested, at least statistically. With the back up situation what it is, he might not be fully rested very often, unless Ukic or Solomon show the ability to handle substantial minutes, or unless he's been doing a lot of conditioning in the off season.

That said, his numbers are still good enough, even when not rested. His fully rested statistics are amazing! Plus, he only has to hold out until the all star game, he could play tired the entire second half of the season and it wouldn't change his selection.

I'm still optimistic, I think he's a great PG. But I wouldn't pencil him in on the All Star Team just yet.

Also, remember that TJ will have a bigger role in Indiana than he did here when Jose was playing so well. And he now has a giant chip on his shoulder, and has the kind of personality (in my opinion) that can be motivated by this. He could well rack up a lot of points and assists, even if his turnovers are still a little high.

I wish him the best, but I'd rather have Jose's steady hand guiding the offense.

Good post eggs, I agree accept this years team is constructed alot differently than last years.

This years team is definately going to play a slower pace meaning that Jose wont be on the run nearly as much, even if he is playing more. If the team does run, it will be the wings doing so with Jose throwing outlet passes to them.

So while I obviously agree with those numbers, there not gonna hold entirely true for this upcomming season.

He is definitely better fully rested, at least statistically. With the back up situation what it is, he might not be fully rested very often, unless Ukic or Solomon show the ability to handle substantial minutes, or unless he's been doing a lot of conditioning in the off season.

I would think this is the case with any other player in the league, at least to some extent.

How many coaches have you polled to know this. Here is a news flash T.J Ford is highly respected in about every market other than Toronto.

I could ask you the same question ... It's pretty safe to assume that Jose has a better "image" than TJ, as a pass first point guard, completely dedicated to the team, as opposed to TJ who pretty much made himself persona non-grata in Toronto because of his selfishness.

When it comes to popular voting, I have a theory that many people tend to vote from a fantasy perpective - players which do well in fantasy will tend to get more votes. Of course, first comes the "showman" factor, the size of the team's fanbase and the media exposure.